Directions: Read the following passage and answer the following questions based on the passage. Some words are highlighted to help you locate them while answering the questions.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) stands tall in the cultural pantheon for his poetry. It’s less well known that in his own lifetime, and in the decades following his death, this canonical poet had an equal reputation as a philosopher. His published works containing much of his philosophical prose span from The Statesman’s Manual (1816), which set out his theory of imagination and symbolism; BiographiaLiteraria (1817), one of the great and founding works of literary criticism; The Friend (1818), which includes his philosophical ‘Essays on the Principles of Method’; Aids to Reflection (1825), where he expounds his religious philosophy of transcendence; and On the Constitution of the Church and the State (1829), which presents his political philosophy.
The effect of those last two books was so ________that John Stuart Mill named Coleridge as one of the two great British philosophers of the age – the other being Jeremy Bentham, Coleridge’s polar opposite. His thinking was also at the root of the Broad Church Anglican movement, a major influence on FD Maurice’s Christian socialism, and the main source for American Transcendentalism. Ralph Waldo Emerson visited Coleridge in 1832, and John Dewey, the leading pragmatist philosopher, called Coleridge’s Aids to Reflection ‘my first Bible’.
Yet philosophical fortunes change. The almost- total eclipse of British idealism by the rise of analytic philosophy saw a general decline in Coleridge’s philosophical stock. His philosophy languished while his verse rose. Coleridge’s poetry resonated with the psychedelia of the 1960s and a general cultural shift that emphasized the value of the imagination and a more holistic view of the human place within nature. Today, Coleridge is far more often remembered as a poet than a philosopher. But his philosophy was spectacular in its originality and syntheses.
Although Coleridge wrote poetry throughout his life, his energies increasing directed toward philosophy. Drawing from Neo-Platonism, the ingenious but difficult transcendental idealism of Immanuel Kant, and the even obscurer intricacies of post-Kantians such as J G Fichte and F W J Schelling, his philosophy was undoubtedly of the difficult metaphysical kind, very much at odds with practically minded British empiricism. Lord Byron spoke for many when he described Coleridge: Explaining Metaphysics to the nation – I wish he would explain his Explanation.
Yet the British empiricism of John Locke, David Hume and David Hartley was itself at odds, Coleridge pointed out, with a deeper heritage of British thought. ‘Let England be,’ he pronounced, ‘Sidney, Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Bacon, Harrington, Swift, Wordsworth’, who represent the idealizing and proto-romantic tradition that he identified as ‘the spiritual platonic old England’. Coleridge rallied that ‘spiritual platonic’ tradition to oppose the philosophies of empiricists and hard-headed expounders of ‘common-sense’ such as Samuel Johnson, Erasmus Darwin, Hume, Joseph Priestley, William Paley and William Pitt, ‘with Locke at the head of the Philosophers and
[Alexander] Pope of the Poets’.
1) Which of the following is the most opposite in meaning to the word ‘ Expound’ highlighted in the passage?
A. Define
B. Obscure
C. Degenerate
D. Languish
E. Exigent
Sol:
‘Expound’ means ‘present and explain (a theory or idea) in detail’. ‘Obscure’ means ‘keep from
being seen; conceal’ is antonymous to ‘expound’. Hence, option B is the right answer choice.
2) Which of the following words fits in the blank gi ven in the passage?
A. Impressive
B.Suggestive
C. Remunerative
D. Mediocre
E. Injurious
Sol:
The given blank will take the word ‘impressive’ (means ‘evoking admiration through size, quality,
or skill; grand, imposing, or awesome’) as the sentence with the blank talks about appreciation of the work of Coleridge by other philosophers. Hence, option A is the right answer choice.
3) Which of the following is true as per the given passage?
I. Coleridge was a supporter of British empiricism and helped in recovering the spiritual platonic tradition.
II. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a well-known poet but a lesser known philosopher.
III. Jeremy Bentham and Samuel Coleridge were of similar opinion when it comes to philosophy.
A. Both I and II
B. Only III
C. Only II
D. All I, II and III
E. None of the above
Sol:
I is incorrect as referring to the last paragraph, the hint can be drawn from the lines, Yet the British empiricism of John Locke, David
Hume and David Hartley was itself at odds, Coleridge pointed out, with a deeper heritage of
British thought.
II is incorrect as referring to the first paragraph; the hint can be drawn from the lines, It’s less well known that in his own lifetime, and in the decades following his death, this canonical poet had an equal reputation as a philosopher.
III is incorrect as referring to the second paragraph; the hint can be drawn from the lines,
The effect of those last two books was so ___________ that John Stuart Mill named
Coleridge as one of the two great British philosophers of the age – the other being Jeremy
Bentham, Coleridge’s polar opposite.
Hence, option E is the right answer choice.
4) Which of the following describes the quality of Samuel Taylor Coleridge as per the passage?
A. Valorous
B. Analytical
C. Egocentric
D. Insightful
E. Dominative
Sol:
As per the passage, being a great philosopher and poet, Samuel Coleridge can be called as ‘insightful’ (which means ‘having or showing an accurate and deep understanding; perceptive’).
Hence, option E is the right answer choice.
5) What is the author’s motive behind writing the third paragraph of the given passage?
A. To convey the importance of empiricism and its role in the changing era of industrial revolution.
B. To convey the depth of Coleridge’s work and how it affected the philosophers of his time.
C. To convey the ideas on ‘the spiritual platonic old England’ and how Coleridge was highly influenced by those ideations.
D. To convey the fact that Coleridge was a great philosopher and his work was arresting even though it saw its decline as philosophical thoughts replace each other.
E. None of the above
Sol:
Option D is correct in reference to the third paragraph of the given passage.
Hence, option D is the right answer choice.
6) Which of the following can be inferred as the reason(s) for the decline of Coleridge’s philosophy?
A. Coleridge’s ideas were difficult to be understood by common man and thus they lost their popularity.
B. Coleridge’s work was related to metaphysics which is not even understood by the great philosophers of that time.
C. There was a rise of analytical philosophy and empiricism which at that time got well accepted by the philosophers in Britain.
D. Only A and C
E. All A, B and C
Sol:
Option A can be inferred as referring to the second last paragraph; the hint can b drawn
from the lines,
Lord Byron spoke for many when he described Coleridge: Explaining Metaphysics to the nation
–I wish he would explain his Explanation. Option C can be inferred while referring to the third paragraph, the hint can be drawn from the lines, Yet philosophical fortunes change. The almost[1]total eclipse of British idealism by the rise of analytic philosophy saw a general decline in Coleridge’s philosophical stock.
Hence, option D is the right answer choice.
7) Which of the following phrases (I), (II) or (III) gi ven below the statement should replace the phrase in bold to make the sentence grammatically and contextually correct? If the sentence is correct in i ts original form, mark (E) ‘ No correction required’ as the answer. Although Coleridge wrote poetry throughout his life, his energies increasing directed toward philosophy.
I. Consistently moved along
II. Convincingly needed
III. Increasingly channeled towards
A. Only I
B. All I, II & III
C. II & I
D. Only III
E. No correction required
Sol:
The highlighted phrase is incorrect and ‘increasing’ needs to be replaced by ‘increasingly’ which is an adverb and modifies the verb ‘channeled’. Hence, option D is the right answer choice.
